Cornerstone

Have you wanted to make a change in your life? Is there someone you'd like
to love if they were a tick or a ton different from what they are? Are
there goals you haven't yet abandoned to a rational consideration of
reality? Do you have heirlooms you haven't dared to jettison from the
sinking ship of your existence? Enter Cornerstone, where everyone is CACAPA
(Currently Already Considering All Possibilities Anyway). If you don't
already see this motto punctuated with the corresponding hand gestures,
you're behind the curve. But you can start bouldering your way up this
class-six, grade-VI wall by taking advantage of a Weekend Seminar, free to
those who rope in ten more suckers.

Cornerstone
is everyone you hate at the office congregating before yet one more
PowerPoint to participate in evangelist-style proselytizing, political
propaganda-level cheering, and Alcoholics Anonymous-type confessions to
convert/recruit you to something that might be a self-help group, a cult,
or a multilevel marketing scheme. In other words, it is an SNL
skit that goes on and on and on. Conceived by Jake Fruend, written by Kevin
Sparrow, and directed by Rose Freeman for Nothing Without a Company, the
experience is partly immersive and traverses a few rooms in Artspace 8, a
gallery inside a mall. However, no clear references are made to visual art
or retail shopping complexes. Individual stories by participants
occasionally stand out, but as Freeman points out in her program note, "You
don't need to sit and listen to any of this." v

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